It's been a decade since former President Bush proposed and Congress passed the No Child Left Behind law. The goal of this law was to raise student achievement and reduce the gap between different groups of students, especially white and minority students. The law's passage reflected a broad consensus among elected officials, business leaders and…

This guide presents practical applications from a research study about the processes that schools use to initiate and sustain reforms. It examines the history of 10 elementary schools in high-poverty settings, including details of behavioral and attitudinal changes. Ten capacities were associated with the stages of successful reform. The…

Reforming schools involves change and, like all change, it faces opposition. This 2-part report is designed to help local school and community leaders involved in education who are experiencing growing opposition to school improvement efforts. The first part includes materials and resources educational leaders can use to promote change. Each entry…

Public schools across the country are aiming to improve student performance by engaging in comprehensive school reform (CSR). This guide was created to help school districts make CSR an integral part of their strategies for improving student achievement. Five components for CSR are described: (1) Strategizing, whereby the district supports CSR by…

This workbook offers information about building community support for educational reform, particularly for improving mathematics and science education. Following an introductory chapter that explains the need for community support, the second chapter offers step-by-step suggestions for bringing the community together, some of which are identifying…

Strategies for administrators who deal with community criticism of school change are provided in this handbook. Chapter 1 explains the need for a comprehensive communications strategy and a communications team. Chapter 2 describes ways to build support with various constituencies, including how to gather information about different groups'…

Even with all the external elements of school reform in place, educators can end up spinning their wheels. To make progress, schools must identify the nonnegotiable key elements of their reform plans and use the habits of highly effective schools to turn them into school practice. These habits are: (1) demonstrate high expectations and a vision…

The results of a two-day skill laboratory on creating community support for educational change is reported in eight chapters. Participants focused on creative solutions to problems of school-community relations. Four concerns identified included the need to 1) recognize the pressures for accountability procedures and reports; 2) collaborate with…

This report examines the use of community-based support to facilitate curriculum renewal efforts in small rural school districts. Interviews with educators from five school districts in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington describe three approaches to curriculum renewal: community-initiated approaches, state-directed reform efforts, and…

Family support programs have been attracting increased attention, and are at the center of efforts to build systems of integrated, comprehensive, and preventive family-focused services. This handbook, developed by the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP), profiles 73 school-affiliated family support and education programs in the United States to…